Definitions of Forge Gaming Vocabulary

[Judd]

Could we compile a list of terms that Indie Gamers use such as sim, GNS, and/or narrativist for us newbies.

I am intrigued by the gamespeak here but I want to be clear.

If ENworld is gaming Junior High and RPGnet is college than this is geek graduate school.  I feel like I did when I first was introduced to critical theory and there was all of this jargon that every discussion was based on but I didn't have in my arsenal (yet) and wondered if we might post some terms for ease of transition.

Thanks,

P-

[kaworuiskool]

Hey, I have some spare time and I thought I'd catch this one. Okay, go up to the main page of the Forge, click on articles, and read Ron's first essay called "GNS and other matters...". Most the terms are in there.

[Christoffer Lernö]

I don't think that was exactly what Paka was looking for. Of course the in-depth version is there, but it lacks some stuff and there are no clear overview of all words with definitions.

Maybe something to do? There are a lot of other definitions frequently used which might want to trickle into that list of definitions as well. What about it Ron?

[kaworuiskool]

....such as sim, GNS, and/or narratavist....

I thought I was on-target there. Without that article under his belt, he's heading for a misinterpretation of those words sooner or later. But, I'm not saying it couldn't be updated. Ah well, I'm just a newbie myself. I think I'll wait for a moderator to catch this one.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Actually (Kaworu?) is right - trying to distill Ron's essay down into a couple of short definitions hasn't worked yet. The article will familiarize you with some of the jargon used around here enough that the rest will come in context.

[Ron Edwards]

Hey,

A couple of attempts have begun to compile a glossary. None of them have developed much yet, although you can find discussions about it in the Site Discussion forum. One of these days ...

In the meantime, I am always happy to address any terms discussion for its own sake, whether here, in the GNS forum if appropriate, or by private email. Some people prefer the low-pressure atmosphere of the latter.

Best,
Ron

[Judd]

I am in the process of reading the article now.   Thanks, it gives exactly what I was looking for.  I think perhaps a glossary might be redundant.

Thanks,

P-

[Christoffer Lernö]

There's a lot of other stuff which is only in the forums. Take the IEEE (or whatever it is called, there was a couple of suggestions). Defining words frequently used like "de-protagonizing" ought to be there as well.

[Le Joueur]

I'm just a little surprised that no one pointed to this thread.  It reads pretty much like the lexicon requested, but never got expanded to full course.

Fang Langford

[Paganini]

Thanks for pointing out my lexicon thread, Fang! :)

My idea for that thread is for it to serve as a quick memory-jogger. It's not meant in any way to be a replacement for Ron's GNS writings. The idea is that there's a great deal of non-obvious terminology in the GNS documents. The lexicon thread is intended to be a quick reference. If you see someone say something and you don't know exactly what it means, checking the lexicon thread might jog your brain.

Basically, the top post in the thread is the archived lexicon. I edit it according to the suggestions other members post below it. So far there haven't been too many suggestions, but that's okay. GNS and the understanding of GNS are slow developers. :)